A New Guardian
by emw314
Summary: Story 3 of the Slayer vs Stargate series. Jim has a dream to warn him of intruders to his territory
1. Inauspicious Introductions

Disclaimer: Don't own or claim rights to BtVS or The Sentinel.

* * *

"Wake up, Sandburg, we got to go," the tall man called out as he thumped on the bedroom door. When he didn't get a response, the banged the door again. "Come on, sport, we got to get out of here. I had a dream, and we got to go now."

A moment later, a long-haired man stumbled out of the room. "You had a dream? Man, what sort of dream? What's so urgent about it? And what time is it?"

"Doesn't matter what the time is, we got to go now. The animals are at the door, waiting for us."

With that comment, the younger man started. "Really? Okay, then. Just let me get some clothes on. And you got to tell me the dream," he called out as he disappeared back into the bedroom.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered as he paced and fidgeted with his keys. "Finally," he grunted when Blair came out, dragging on a jacket. "Lets go."

Once they were on the way, Blair turned to his friend. "So tell me, this dream. What's it all about?"

Jim clenched his teeth. "I don't know if they were spirit animals like we have, or if they were just representations. It kind of felt, I don't know, weird. Okay, so there's a cheetah leading the way, followed by a wolf. The cheetah sprints ahead, then stops and waits for the wolf. They're here, I'm sure of it," he added.

"Maybe I should drive," Blair offered and he held onto the door. Following their spirit animals was not doing Jim's driving anything good, and Blair was only thankful that the streets were so empty at whatever the hell time it was. Having the Sentinel so focussed on something that didn't care about other traffic was not good.

Finally, Jim pulled over and parked the car. Barely had he done so than he was out of the car, and running across the street. Blair hurriedly followed him, worrying about his Sentinel. Jim stopped by a motorcycle carelessly parked near the street corner, and looked around. When Blair caught up to him, Jim suddenly turned, and ran around the corner. Blair followed hurriedly, to find his friend stalking up to a dark-haired man and a fair-haired women.

"Who the hell are you two, and what are you doing here?" Jim shouted.

To Blair's surprise, neither of the strangers seemed intimidated by Jim's aggression. Rather, the woman, some feet further from Jim than the man, turned immediately and almost seemed to stalk forward. When the man, who, startlingly, appeared to have only one eye, saw her walk past him, he swore violently and quickly wrapped his arms around her, lifting her bodily off the ground.

"Call off your guy and do it now," the stranger shouted as he struggled with the woman.

Blair quickly stepped in front of Jim and started talking to him, trying to calm him down. "Come on, man, don't do this. We don't even know who these people are. This is so not cool. You need to calm down now. I think you set the girl off, and I need you to calm down so he can get his friend to calm down. Come on, big guy, you know you can do this. Just listen to my voice. Come on, Jim, look at me. You don't need to look at them, just look at me. Can you tell me what the animals are doing? Can you talk to me?"

Jim huffed. "I could talk to you if you shut the hell up," he grunted. He shifted his weight and looked around. "They're just sitting there. They're looking at those two, but they're not doing anything."

"Do they seem upset?"

"No."

"Okay, could it just be that they wanted you to meet these people?"

"They're dangerous. These people are dangerous. They shouldn't be here. What the hell?" Jim demanded as he suddenly focussed on the couple.

Blair looked around to see that the man had taken the women to the ground, where she still struggled against him, twisting and arching her body to free herself. Apart from engulfing her in a bear hug, he had tangled his legs around hers in an effort to prevent her from kicking out, and had buried his head in the crook of her neck so she couldn't head butt him. Then, suddenly, he raised his head, and bit the side of her neck.

Blair gasped at the sight, but the woman instantly stilled. The man didn't let go, though. It was only when she dropped her head that the man finally let go, gently kissing the bite mark. Slowly, he untangled their legs, and then helped her to her feet, paying close attention to her the entire time. When he was satisfied, he finally turned back to Jim and Blair.

"Sorry about that. We've been on the hunt for three weeks, and there hasn't been a lot of sleep. She's a bit … wild at the moment."

"You bit her," Blair gasped. "That is so not cool. You don't bite people. How could you do that?"

The dark-haired stranger tilted his head and frowned, as if trying to figure out what to make of him. "I did what it took to calm her down," he said finally. "I was trying to contain her, and if it had been anyone else, it wouldn't have worked. None of the others would allow themselves to be held like that, and she won't allow anyone else to do that. Maybe one other person," he added thoughtfully. "Either way, it wasn't working. She was too far gone for anything less to stop her. Would you rather I let her pound your friend here into paste? 'Cause that's what would have happened."

The shaman looked back at the girl. She was about his height, and probably quite a bit lighter. No way would she pound someone like Jim into paste.

The stranger laughed. "You're totally not seeing it. Don't worry, most people wouldn't."

"What is she?" Jim growled.

"She's a Hunter," the stranger answered. He appeared to be about to say more, but she whined softly. He turned back to her and tilted his head, as if asking a question. When she started fidgeting, he just nodded, and she ran off.

"Hey! Where's she going? I need to talk to her," Jim shouted.

The stranger stepped in front of Jim, and put his hands out. "No. You are not talking to her tonight. For several reasons, not least of which is that she's not exactly good with the speaking at the moment." He looked back over his shoulder, then turned back to Jim. "Look. We can talk later. Tomorrow. Not now. We have things to hunt, and I seriously doubt you're qualified." He quickly fished out a business card and handed it over. "Call us tomorrow. Late. She needs to unwind, and so do I. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to finish this." With that, the man turned, and jogged off down the street.

Jim and Blair followed at a distance, and saw the man reach behind his back for something. Out of apparently nowhere, he pulled a large axe, and held it loose in his hand, still stalking forwards. Jim stopped, and started reaching out with his senses. He identified Blair's heartbeat, and ignored it. Reaching further, he heard the man's calm pulse. Reaching further, he began to hear footsteps, running, approaching. He looked up, sensing they were coming from the rooftops. Suddenly he could smell something, something off, and then he heard something scramble hurriedly down a metal fire escape, to land hard on the ground. The footsteps increased, and someone... something... ran out of an alley.

The creature was odd, weird, and only something like human. Though it had a basic human shape, its face was oddly smooth, with a large jaw sloping almost straight back to its hairless head. Its long arms hung loose from its powerful shoulders, and it moved with a liquid gait towards the stranger. It said something to the stranger, but Jim had never heard the language before, or even anything like it. It sounded nasty, aggressive, yet the man laughed.

"Gods, you think you guys would learn by now, wouldn't you," the man mocked. Jim knew it was too far for Blair to hear, but he had no problems. "You can't lose her, and you definitely can't kill her. Not your type, anyway. Hell, you're not even that much of a problem for me," he added as he swung the axe.

The creature jumped back, then turned to run. However, when it turned, it noticed the girl standing there. Jim hadn't noticed her arrival, and sure hadn't heard anything. It began to pant, and ground out something in its strange language. She cocked her head and smiled, then pounced. With one swift move, she wrapped her arm around the creature's neck, and yanked, pulling the head right off the body. Dropping the head to lie beside the body, she began to study her arm, calmly, dispassionately, looking at the blood which stained her sleeve.

The man approached her slowly, talking to her in soft tones. Jim turned up his hearing to listen in, but, unfortunately, he wasn't speaking English, but some other lilting language. She shifted her gaze from her arm to the man, still approaching carefully. Decisively, she stepped over the alien corpse and cupped her hand around his cheek. Jim started forward, until he realised the man had no fear of the woman. Instead, he lowered his head, cradled her head in his hands, and kissed her hard.

Blair blinked. "Well that was... Oh, man, I have no idea what that was. She just ripped his head off, like it was nothing. Oh, man, I think I'm going to be sick. That was not cool. That was so not cool," he murmured.

Jim was about to respond to his friend, when he noticed the woman had looked up and was staring at them. Before he could do anything, the stranger had turned her head back to look at him. As she focussed on him, Jim noticed her relax. When the stranger was satisfied, he stepped to the side and took her hand. When they got to Jim and Blair, he spoke. "Like I said, call us tomorrow. Late. It's been a long three weeks, and she needs to come down from this. She should be more … sociable tomorrow."

When Jim looked at her, he noticed she was certainly more relaxed than previously. She was leaning into the man, her arm twined around his, her eyes hooded. He could even hear a soft sound every so often, almost like a sub-vocal purr. Then he looked back to where the corpse had fallen, to see that it had dissolved into a dark jelly-like mass which was slowly spreading across the footpath.

"What the hell?"

The man looked back and grinned. "Oh, yeah. Got to love the dissolvers," he commented. Turning back to Jim and Blair, he continued. "Tomorrow. We'll talk tomorrow. Okay? Sleep now. Sleep is of the good."

Jim nodded slowly. "You guys going to be okay to get to wherever you're going?"

The man looked down at the woman and considered. "Yeah. She should be fine to drive. Although I don't really know where we're going. I got someone to arrange something here, since we were pretty sure we'd end up here at either today or tomorrow. If you could lead us to the Marriot, that would be great."

"Sure. Your bike is near my truck."

"Lead the way," the stranger invited.


	2. Enveloping Explanations

Disclaimer: Don't own or claim rights to BtVS or The Sentinel

* * *

Blair bounced on his toes as he waited for the phone to answer.

"Yeah," came a woman's voice.

"Oh, I'm looking for Xander Harris. Would he be available?"

There was a pause before she answered. "He's sleeping. It's been a long... however long." Blair heard a murmur in the background, and the woman went on. "Two hours," was all she said before hanging up.

Jim looked at his guide. "Guess we better finish up here, then."

* * *

Files sorted, desks tidied away, Jim and Blair were ready to leave the office. Blair felt like he was about to burst with excitement. He could be about to interview a member of an unknown warrior society, someone as powerful as a Sentinel. He wondered if the man, Xander, was her shaman? Hunter and Shaman? That could be a powerful combination. And female warriors. And beings that dissolve into a gelatinous mass? What was that about? It would be hell on the forensics, he rather thought. And the woman had been so far gone in her, what, hunting trance? That her partner had had to actually bite her to get her to submit. How far back into her primitive brain did she go? Oh, man, he had so many questions.

"Don't worry, Chief. I'll make sure the little girl doesn't beat you with her club when you piss her off with all your questions."

"What makes you so sure I'll piss her off?"

"'Cause you piss me off with your tests, sometimes," Jim offered with a grin.

"At least she can talk to me today," Blair considered. So far back into her primitive brain that she had lost the power of speech. That had to be some powerful trance. "I can't wait," he bounced.

* * *

Blair knocked on the door of the suite. The door was opened straight away by the woman from last night. She looked at Blair, and stepped out of the way. He hesitated for a moment, then entered the apartment. Once he was out of the doorway, though, she stepped back into the doorway, and Blair was positive he could hear her growling.

"Gwennie!" Xander called sharply from the kitchenette. "Let him in. And don't get between the nice Guardian and his Shaman. You know better than that."

Stiffly, the woman moved aside and allowed Jim to enter, watching him until he sat down beside Blair on the sofa. Blair watched her as she slunk over to the seating arrangement, and was about to sit in the chair closest to Jim when Xander grabbed her arm and pulled her hard up against him. For the first time since she had opened the door, her gaze was on someone other than them as Xander scowled down at her. When he finally released her, she moved around, and sat on the sofa opposite Jim. Holding herself stiffly upright in the chair, she stared at the coffee table between them.

Once he was satisfied that she was going to stay put, Xander turned to shake Jim's hand. "I just wanted to get this out of the way straight away. I would like to apologise. We weren't informed that Cascade had a Guardian. If we had known, we would have contacted you as soon as we knew the hunt was taking us in your direction, to get permission to hunt on your territory. By the time we found out, last night, it was too late, and we had to finish it ASAP. That thing had a nasty habit of hunting humans, and we had already come across several victims in the three weeks that we were actively hunting it. On behalf of the IGC I would like to formally apologise for this trespass, and to also let you know that Cascade has been officially identified in our database as a notifiable destination."

"So," he continued as he walked back to the kitchenette, "is there anything you would like to know?"

Blair frowned. All of a sudden he couldn't think of one time Xander had spoken to Gwen, other than immediately after she had, ugh, ripped the head off that... creature. Even now he barely spoke to her, but rather employed some kind of physical or visual system.

"Coffee okay," Xander asked as he brought over a carafe and a jug of cream. He quickly brought out the mugs, sugar and spoons, and invited them to help themselves while he went back for Gwen's drink. Blair noted that, instead of coffee, she was having a tea. He sniffed, and noted that it was a herbal tea, but he couldn't figure out what it was. The other thing he noticed was that he had grabbed her by the chin and glared at her after putting the cup down in front of her.

Xander smiled at him. "I'm trying to get her to stabilise. The last thing she needs at the moment is caffeine."

"What is that?"

"It's a special blend that a friend of ours introduced us too. It, um, soothes the savage beast," he added with a quiet smile. "It has become a part of the small unit kit for exactly this kind of circumstance. The larger teams aren't even on hunts as long as this, but it's a lot harder to regulate things when it's only the two or three of you."

"So there's some groups of, like, two or three Hunters, and then there's larger groups?"

"Most of the Hunters are now in groups of five hunters, with a total of usually four support staff. Then there's the small units – one Hunter, with one or two backup. Usually it's only the one person to back up the Hunter. It's actually kind of traditional, and something we really didn't thing we'd fall back into when we restructured, but there are a few Hunters that seem to thrive better this way." Again he wore his small smile.

"So, ah, what can you tell me about these Hunters?"

Xander sat back, and looked at the woman through his eyelashes. "They're always female. That's the first thing. In fact, if you were to go through the legends and look for mystical or empowered, or otherwise special girl warriors, you'd probably be on the right track. Especially if they were always alone, or accompanied by a lone companion."

Blair nodded. "Okay. Can you tell me about what's going on with Gwen last night??"

"She had … regressed, I guess you might say. There's Gwen, but then there's the Hunter inside her, that makes her what she is. Because of the long hunt, and the bad conditions, Gwen disappeared into the back of her consciousness, and, er, the Hunter took over. She's still recovering. The tea should help. Every..." He sighed. "Okay. We've only recently started using the term Hunter when talking to people, because it's actually more warm and friendly that the traditional term, the term which, I might add, is still used amongst the ones we hunt. And they can make quite a fuss about beating one of our girls. I know one who killed one of Gwen's … sisters back in the seventies, and wore the coat that he stole from her body to the very end, only a few years ago."

Blair was surprised to hear a growl from the woman, but Xander just carried on. "Yes, I know. Tacky. But it was always his way."

Gwen seemed to shrug, and then slid over to lean nearly full length against Xander. The other man smiled, and wound his arm around her waist. "See," he said. "I told you she just needed to relax."

Jim snorted. "You really should market that stuff."

Xander shook his head. "It really only works on a select variety of people. You could probably use it, because you're much with the primitive, but I can't, and neither can that shaman of yours. We don't go so far that way."

When Jim glared at him, Xander shrugged. "What? You're going to deny that you have more than normal access to your primitive brain?" He snorted. "Man, if that were true, she wouldn't be challenging you. Of course, she wouldn't challenge you normally, but last night she was so far gone she would have challenged Buffy." Noticing their blank looks, he added, "Oh, um Hunter Prime, I guess you could say. Alpha of all the alphas. Gwen has very clear boundaries, normally, but Sineya was very strong last night, and she probably would have gone for it."

"Sineya?"

Xander huffed. "First of their kind. The essence of the Hunter." His eye became distant, as if remembering. "The Shadow Men chained her to the Earth, and forced the power into her. When they were finished, she had the power, sure, but she had also been driven mad, and had forgotten how to speak. She fought, and she died, a very short, brutal and messy life. When she died, her essence, her power, passed to the next girl, and the next girl. For untold thousands of years, the line continued unbroken, one girl, only, after another girl, only. And the Shadow Men, and their descendants, watched over the girls, until they were nothing more than tools to used up and tossed away.

"But then there was a golden girl. It was like there was sunlight just by her being there. A mere year from her calling, she too fell. Except that when she fell, drowned, there was someone there who knew how to breathe the life back into her. Sure she died, but she was alive again. And so the line was split. A handful of years later, there rose an evil like you have never seen. It was called the First. The First Evil. And she and her sister were not enough to contain this evil, to defeat it. They needed more. We needed more. So she called on the Red Witch, and gave her the weapon of the Slayers, and the Red Witch became the White Witch, and poured out the power of Sineya to all who could carry it."

"You actually believe this crap?" Jim demanded.

Xander laughed, and pulled Gwen, who had curled up to glare at Jim, back against him. "For the histories, we have written accounts dating back thousands of years. We don't have written accounts of the creation of the Slayer, but we do have oral tradition, which was very carefully preserved. As for the splitting of the line, and the spreading of the power? I was there. I split the line, and my best friend spread the power while I was in the building. We closed the mouth of hell that day, and lost too many very good people. But the First was defeated, and we walked away." After a moment, he added, "Actually we scrambled onto a school bus, and rumbled away, but it really doesn't sound quite so poetic that way, doesn't it?"

Blair chuckled at that. He could see the irony of mystical warriors being bundled onto one of those inelegant yellow monstrosities to slowly make their way off the scene.

"You know what was worse? Even though they didn't say it, we all knew they could have gotten out and run faster, because Buffy did run faster. She was the last one out, and we had had to start without her, because, frankly, we weren't getting out at all if we didn't. She ran the rooftops and caught up with us." He shook his head.

They drank their coffee in silence for a moment. Blair took the chance to observe Gwen. She had certainly relaxed since accepting the tea. Now she lay, sprawled, against Xander, eyes hooded, and looking for all the world like a contented cat. Seeing her like that sparked a sudden thought. "Oh, hey, cheetah!"

Gwen raised her head to focus on the shaman, but Jim shook his head. "No. I didn't see a cheetah last night, and I only saw your wolf."

Xander looked at the two men. "Can I say, 'huh'?"

Blair looked at him, excited. "The whole reason we were out there last night was because Jim had a dream about you two. He saw a cheetah that would run ahead, then stop, and wait for a wolf to catch up. That was you two. So are they spirit guides, Jim, do you think?"

Gwen had relaxed again, no longer interested, but Xander was curious about the other man's opinion. He personally doubted that either of them had spirit guides, but he was still interested in hearing Jim's explanation.

"No, I don't think so. Like I said last night, it didn't feel right for them to be spirit guides. More representations."

"So your dream represented Gwen as a cheetah, and me as a wolf?" He thought about that. "I can see that. Gwen is much faster than a normal human, yet she will never go so far that I can't catch up. And wolves are pack animals. I'm much more sociable than Gwen." She seemed to agree, by the sound of her soft snort.

"Can I ask," Blair began, "what are you? Gwen's a Hunter, all mystical and powerful, but what are you?"

"Normal," Xander replied cheerfully.

Gwen, however, stiffened, and Jim heard her soft growl as she glared at her partner. "It's true, Gwennie, and you know it. I have no amazing super powers. I am just normal."

"There's no way you're normal, kid. I saw you fighting with her last night. If she's some amazingly super-powered hero, then what are you? 'Cause you were definitely holding your own there."

He shrugged. "I am her husband. We actually have a fairly firm social structure laid out between us. When it's work, she's alpha. When it's us, I'm alpha. I have the right to pull rank on her at any time, and she'll obey, because she trusts me. There is one other person who could pull rank on her, and that's another very normal person like me. Dawn's actually weaker than I am simply because she's a normal woman, and not a Hunter like the others. Dawn cannot go toe to toe with any Hunter, but because of the relationships we have, Gwen will submit to Dawn even in extremes. We're like a safety valve for her. And we really are normal," he added. When Gwen snorted softly, and glanced up at him, he added, "You know, for people from Southern California."

"What's that thing you two do?" Jim wanted to know. "I've barely heard you say a word to her, last night or tonight, unless its something you want us to hear. And I'm not sure she's even said one word to you. Yet you two are definitely communicating. I know it's not anything sub-vocal. What is it?"

Xander tilted his head. "Do you remember what I said about having a witch for a friend?" When they nodded, he went on. "Well, she made it so that a certain group of us could communicate mentally any time we were within a certain distance. It makes coordinating attacks really convenient and secure. When Gwen and I got married, my friend kind of hooked her into the grid, rather than just link the two of us up directly. Something about being better to not mess with the spell?" He shrugged. "Not a magical type person, don't get into it."

"So you're not a shaman?" Blair asked.

"Not a shaman, not a witch," Xander confirmed. "I've been used as a focal point or a part of a spell, but I don't actually do the mojo."

"What's Hunter society like?" Blair asked after a few moments.

Xander shuddered while Gwen snickered. "Imagine, if you will, about forty ten-to-twenty-year-old females, all of whom are freakishly strong and aggressive."

The other two men paled at the thought.

"And that's just the Hunters. We also have witches in training, and researchers, but both of those are mixed gender. So we actually have about fifty to sixty females, ranging anywhere from ten to twenty-five years of age, along with about ten or twenty eighteen-to-twenty-five-year-old men." He allowed that thought to sink in before going on. "Hunters also eat a lot. They have incredibly high metabolisms, and just plough through the food. Word of warning: do not get in between a Hunter and her food. Oh, and when they've hunted, they need to refuel, and maybe work off that excess adrenaline."

At this point, Blair was looking decidedly queasy.

"I see why you volunteered for the small group assignment," Jim offered.

"Actually, we were more assigned the position. Gwen was in a proper team, but she was marrying me, and it was decided that that would cause too many tensions within the team, and within the group at large, so we were reassigned, and now we do other stuff."

"How long does it take Gwen to come down from this... regression?" Blair asked.

"Oh, I'm back," she assured him sleepily. "I just don't talk a lot around people I don't know. I'm an introvert," she offered. "It's one of the many reasons the Council were happy to reassign me. I hadn't found a firm place in my team, and they didn't really need me."

Blair grinned. "You're an introvert? So how do you find that affects the way you act as an alpha?"

She frowned. "It doesn't. I don't feel the need to share my feelings while I'm killing things."

"And they're all just things to you?" Jim asked.

"They are sentient non-human entities, who have an aggressive agenda to either kill humans or other sentient non-humans individually or en masse, or to recreate this world to their own preferences and desires. Bad as it sometimes is, this world is infinitely better than anything they could reshape it as. My sisters and our people work hard to defeat, and if necessary, to destroy these things."

Jim nodded at that explanation.

"What about that, um, thing you killed last night? It just dissolved away to jello. And I am never even looking at jello ever again."

"There's a theory doing the rounds at the moment that a corpse's existence after death is linked to how foreign the being is in life. Most of these beings are from foreign dimensions, but some are nearby, and some are far away. The theory holds that the further the being's home dimension, the less there is of the corpse when we're done with it.. The k'czatta last night was nowhere near local."

"Vampires," Gwen offered.

"Vampires are a special case, since they are demonically activated corpses. Once the demon is forced out of the corpse, the corpse loses all cohesion, hence the dust. With demons like the k'czatta, it is the demon's presence holding the living form together in a dimension too foreign for it to continue to exist. Once the demon's gone, body goes bye-bye."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Jim asked.

"Because of what you are. You are the city's Guardian. You need to know that if there are things that you can't handle by yourself, there is someone you can call to take care of it. I reported your existence when we got in last night, and got full authorisation to tell you this morning."

Jim thought about it for a several minutes. He thought about that strange almost-human creature he had seen last night, a thing that hunted humans. Even if he had been able to overcome that creature, how would he have known its habits, its vulnerabilities. What if something bigger came to town? Something he couldn't actually tackle, for all his hyper-acute senses. "How do I get in touch with you, if I need you?"

"I'll set you up with the liaison, give you a number. I can also get you on the mailing list so that you can get alerts for what's happening in this neck of the woods, any migrations that have been observed, or may be expected. That sort of thing. Sound good?"

"Yeah."

"It's a lot to take in. Just think of us as another weapon in your arsenal to guard this city."

Jim nodded.


	3. Facades and Fascinations

Disclaimer: Don't own or claim rights to BtVS or The Sentinel

A/N: Trying to get back into the swing of things, and finish off some WIP's. One down, unwilling to think of how many remaining.

* * *

"_It's a lot to take in. Just think of us as another weapon in your arsenal to guard this city."_

_Jim nodded._

* * *

"I'll need actual contact details for the database. Do you have a card or something?" Xander asked.

Jim fished out a card and handed it over. "So what actually happens?"

"When the team realises that they're heading your direction, they will ring to give you a heads up. It will be the support person calling, unless things are really messed up. Often as not, it will be a night-time call, as well. Our prey tends to be nocturnal, and so we are, too. You should get the first call when whoever it is is about a day out, to explain what's going on, and why they may need to cross your territory, and then another call about a few hours out, just to confirm. A third call as they're about to hit the city limits, just in case you want to meet up with them. You do, of course, have the right to refuse entrance to your lands, and there may be individuals or teams that you black-ban from here, but we would prefer that you at least attempt to get on with our people. And there will be times when we pull rank, but we save that for apocalypse level situations."

"Apocalypse level situations?" Blair asked faintly.

"It happens. Very rare outside the Hellmouth, but it does happen," Xander explained. "Anyway, we're about to head out for dinner. It's just going to be a quiet night tonight, but we should be here another couple of days, if you want to meet up." Just then, Gwen nuzzled his neck, and he looked down, surprised. "It seems another team is in the area, and would like to hook up. Not hunting, just looking for some down time. Is that okay?" he asked Jim.

Jim shrugged. "Should be okay. Do you know who it is?"

Xander smiled. "Yeah. They're part of our group. There aren't many small teams – the one nearby is the Alpha team. They're … uh..." he looked at Gwen, who smirked and growled. "Tell you what, you want to know about Hunter society, let them come, and meet us tomorrow night. We'll take you clubbing. You'll get to meet the only other person who can control Gwennie, and Faith and Gwen together will be an, uh, interesting introduction to Hunter society," he finished, grinning. "And you'll get to see the other side of Gwen," he added, chuckling.

Jim looked over to Blair, who had pulled out the puppy dog eyes, and shrugged. "Sure. It'll be good to find out what you guys are really like."

"Yeah. Just make sure you remember you said that, okay?"

* * *

Blair looked up, confused. Walking towards, them, grinning, was Xander Harris. "Ah, Xander, is there a problem?"

"No," he chirped as he dropped, boneless, into a chair. "I just got kicked out, so thought I would look you guys up."

"Kicked out," Jim inquired.

"The girls. They're getting ready for tonight." He gave the two men a measuring look. "You sure you really want to go ahead with this? You don't have to, you know. You can still back out."

"What's the plan?"

"Clubbing. Dancing, drinking, that sort of stuff."

Blair glanced at Jim. "That doesn't sound so bad," he suggested.

Xander laughed. "You haven't gone clubbing with my girls. It'll probably be some kind of alternative club, Goth, maybe. Gwennie loathes pop music, and is bored by top forty type music. She'll do those sort of clubs if she's hunting, but tonight's just for fun. Honestly? Any vamp that tries those girls tonight is just suicidal."

"Won't we kind of stand out?" Jim asked, amused.

Xander shrugged. "Wear black. Yeah, you'll stand out – you couldn't not stand out," he snorted, "but the girls will get you in. Oh, and I'm coming back to your place to get changed, if that's okay."

"Afraid they'll pull out the make-up?"

"Not afraid, certain. Dawn will pull it out, Faith will hold me down, and Gwen will let them," he added, making a face. "I don't mind the clothes, but I'm not a fan of eyeliner. They'd do you, if you wanted," he added, looking to Blair.

"No!" Jim growled.

Xander tilted his head as he considered the taller man. "Possessive much?"

"Oh man, you have no idea," Blair retorted. "And wearing make-up will help me blend in to the culture," he added, looking at Jim.

"Don't worry, Jim," Xander added, "we won't ask you to wear any." Then, smirking, he added, "There's not enough eyeliner in Cascade to help you blend."

Jim rolled his eyes. "Look, I'd love to sit and chat, but we have actual work to do, so how about you go, and maybe check back in a couple of hours."

"Sure thing, boss," Xander agreed as he rose from his seat. He handed over a card. "Call me if you need me."

* * *

Jim parked his truck as directed, and scowled as he looked around the parking lot. He sniffed the air, and considered what he smelled. Nothing especially offensive, no great concentrations of illicit drugs, but alcohol, of course, and cigarettes. He sniffed again, and turned towards the new smell. Underneath layers of soaps and perfumes was another scent, something … primal, he decided. Three women were approaching, and the scent seemed to be coming from one of two of them, possibly both. He stared at them as they walked towards him, and felt himself stiffen.

Two of the women were tall and slender, their height amplified by their high-heeled boots. One, the brunette, wore a black corset and long black skirt slit up one leg almost all the way to the hip, her long hair in a ponytail falling down her back. The other wore her blonde hair in two ridiculously high pigtails, like a small child. She also wore a black corset, but her black skirt was fluffy, and ended above her knees. She also wore what looked like a dog collar around her neck and silver cuffs around her biceps, and was one of the women he had scented. The third woman was smaller, but no less impressive, with leather pants and a tank top that moulded her body. While the blonde had silver bicep cuffs, the smaller brunette had a tribal-looking tattoo circling her upper arm. It was these two women that were setting him off, and he realised it was the Hunter in them that was doing so when he recognised the blonde as Harris' partner, Gwen.

"The other side of Gwen?" Jim asked.

"Yeah," Xander grinned as he strode forward to meet her. With an experienced move, he braced for the blonde's leap into his arms. "This is just the start," he added as he spun to face the men, arms full of his lover.

The brunettes rolled their eyes as they watched their friends kiss and walked over to introduce themselves. "I'm Dawn," the taller woman smiled as she held out her hand. "And this is Faith. Xan said that he had told you a bit about us?"

"I'm Blair," the shaman shook Dawn's hand eagerly, then Faith's.

"The witchy-boy," the smaller woman purred as she shook his hand. "Cute. You, though," she went on thoughtfully, turning to Jim, "are pretty much what I expected."

"And that would be?" Jim scowled at her.

Faith smirked. "Alpha out the wazoo. Just my type, actually," she added, grabbing his shirt-front and tugged him forward. Surprised, Jim felt himself pulled off-balance. "Let's dance," Faith growled, smirking.

Xander set Gwen down, and swung her around to fit under his arm, then slung the other arm around Blair's shoulders. Dawn came up the other side of the shaman and linked her arm with his.

"So," Dawn began, "how are you liking it so far?"

"Ah, no, it's cool. This is cool. So Faith is another Hunter?" Blair asked Dawn.

"Yep," she nodded. "Last of the Chosen."

"So how were you chosen to work with her?" Blair asked, curious.

Xander snorted, and Dawn shot a glare at him over Blair's head. "Okay, the fact of it is that Faith doesn't get along with a lot of the Watchers."

"Any of them," Xander offered, sotto voce.

"Xan," Dawn growled warningly. "Anyway, Xander and I, even though we're technically Watchers and all, aren't really. We've never gone to Watcher school, or anything like that, though I do have degrees of my own, but not from the actual Academy, which is kind of like a post-grad school, you know, for after you've done with Oxford or Yale, whichever it is you went to, 'cause pretty much those are the only schools acceptable, or maybe a couple more, what with the tweed and all, which we're so not into, I mean have you seen that stuff?"

Blair managed a grunt of assent before Dawn went on, "Well, you see, the thing is that we're Scoobies, which is a really big thing now that the old Council is gone, and we've been around this stuff since we were, like, kids. I mean, Xander was, what, fifteen when he got into this stuff, and I was, well, thirteen when I really, um, yeah. So, we're Watchers, except we're not, because we're Scoobies, and that's why Faith can actually put up with us, because we know her, and we can accept who and what she is, and not get all 'oh, she's the last of the Chosen' and everything. And Gwen and Faith really get along because Faith can only put Gwen down, what, three times out of five?" she asked, leaning around Blair to ask the blonde.

Gwen tilted her head to the side in thought for a moment. "Say seven times out of ten? Unless it's an off day, and I taunt her with chocolate and Jack. That's always fun," she added with a smile.

Blair felt Xander shudder at that admission. "So you guys fight a lot?"

Xander looked at Blair, eyebrow raised. "Remember what I said about alphas, and all that? Hunters spar a lot, and not all of it is the easy-going stuff. Gwen and Kennedy is definitely something that has to be seen to be believed. Kennedy isn't quite as good as Gwen, but there's a lot of, um, feeling there, shall we say."

They had caught up with Faith and Jim by that time, and entered the club. Jim looked around, having taken care to lower his dial for hearing. The noise was currently at an acceptable level, and he could still hear the others speak.

"You talking about Ken?" Faith asked. "Damn, that girl hates Gwennie here."

"It's just because I won't admit she's perfect, is all," Gwen shrugged. "Although, I'll grant that she had a much greater chance of becoming a Slayer than I ever did."

"Why is that?" Jim asked. "Is she the better Hunter?"

"Um, Xander just said that Kennedy wasn't as good as Gwen," Blair frowned. "So why would she get to be Slayer first?"

Gwen frowned. "Yeah. 'Hunter' is just the term we use with civilians. As for me? I'm … not anomalous, exactly, but maybe from a previously unknown subset of Slayers?"

"Why is that?" Jim prodded.

"Demons can't sense me. Even other Slayers can't sense me, not really. I can sense them, though, and can tell the difference between normal Slayers, and those more like me. So far, anyway. We've found a couple, so far, that are like me. It's good. I don't feel quite so odd anymore."

The entire time Gwen had been speaking, she had been scanning the dance floor. Jim shrugged, deciding that that was the reason they had come to the club in the first place, but Gwen turned back to them, and went on, "I can give you a demonstration, if you want." She gave a lopsided smile. "Guardian, do I have permission to hunt in your territory?"

Jim frowned, and scanned the dance floor, trying to work out what she had sensed. "Sure."

"Okay. All of you stay here. I will go and identify a vamp, and you can get to see his reaction to me. Then Faith will go up, and you can check his reaction to her. He feels fairly mature, so he should be able to sense Faith quite easily when she's up close and personal. That suit?"

Both locals nodded, and Gwen slunk off into the crowd. They watched as she moved through, apparently lost in the music, and oblivious to anyone else on the floor. Eventually, she found herself in front of a man, maybe a few years older than herself. She stationed herself in front of him, back to him, and swayed her hips encouragingly, before tipping her head to one side so that her hair fell away from her neck. Jim watched tensely as man stepped forward, and took the blonde by the hips and swayed with her. After a few minutes, Gwen pulled away, and wandered off, eventually making her way back to the group.

"Okay, Faith. Your turn."

Jim watched as Faith retraced Gwen's path onto the dance floor, and through the writing crowd. He watched as Faith sidled up to the man, and presented her well-formed rear for his inspection. And he watched as the man approached, and then jerked back from the dancing woman. Faith spun with impossible speed, and smiled up at the man she now held in a close embrace. Jim could see the sheer terror in the man's eyes, but didn't see Gwen melt into the crowd until she turned up at them man's side. The man glanced at her, but continued to focus, almost without exception, on the small brunette in front of him.

Faith continued to talk to the man, and seemed to refer to Gwen a couple of times, but, apart from a few disdainful glances, the man seemed to ignore the slender blonde. Finally, Faith slung an arm around the man's waist, and the two women escorted him from the dance floor, and back to the group.

"Hey guys," Faith began, "this here's Walter. I was thinking that Wally here could come out and have a little chat with us for a while. What do you say to that, hey Wally?"

The man swallowed nervously. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Whatever you want, okay?"

With that, the group left the club and walked out into the carpark. Xander looked around and found a suitably secluded spot for them to 'chat'. Faith pushed the man up against a wall, while Gwen stationed herself off to one side, away from the others. Xander and Dawn positioned themselves either side of the locals, and waited for Faith.

"So here's the deal," Faith began. "We're just showing some people how things work on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, and you're the object lesson. You don't mind, do you?"

"No. No, not at all," the man panted.

"Okay. So first thing: what do you think when you see me?"

"Death," he gasped.

"Good," Faith nodded. "You should think that. Too many fledges have absolutely no idea what I am, and what I mean to them. It's damn disappointing," she pouted.

"No, no," the man shook his head desperately. "You're a Slayer. I get that," he reassured.

"Oh, the hell I am," Faith argued indignantly. Gwen rolled her eyes, but made no comment. "I'm the Dark Slayer. That's who I am."

Walter gulped again. "I... I'll move on, I swear. I, um, I'll be good. I can do that. I can... I can eat bagged. Yeah, that's what I can do," he offered.

"Oh, there's only one way this is ending, yo! And that's you fit for the dust-buster. Ain't no way you're getting out of that. 'Course, there's the easy way," she offered, tapping a newly-retrieved stake in her free hand, "or there's the hard way. Boy-Toy over there," she continued, tilting her head to Xander. "Any idea who he is?"

The man looked at Xander, puzzled. He thought for a long moment, before moaning softly. "Oh, shit."

Faith grinned. "Yep, I think you got it. And he would be?"

"The White Knight. Shit, shit, shit!" He looked around desperately, trying to catalogue who the other people where. "No. I don't get it. Who are the others?"

"Well," Faith pondered, looking at the main group, "we've got a couple of locals that we're educating here – that's the two in the middle – and you already picked Boy-Toy here. The girl on the end is my Watcher, the Golden Slayer's little sis, so you know she's way off limits. What I want to know is what you think of blondie over here," she finished, pointing her stake at Gwen.

"I don't know," Walter whined, shaking his head. "I though she was your Watcher. She doesn't even feel like a witch. I don't know what she is."

"What do you feel about here?" Faith prodded.

"Nothing. There is nothing to feel about her. She's a null."

Faith smiled – an utterly unpleasant smile, from Walter's perspective – and stepped back, tossing her stake to Gwen. In one unbearably swift move, Gwen snatched the stake out of the air, and moved forward, pointed end flush with Walter's chest before he had a chance to react.

"She's a Slayer, too," Faith explained, then Gwen thrust the stake in, and swiftly out again, before returning it, with small ceremony, to Faith. Then she turned and sauntered back to Xander's side.

Jim stared at the dust particles floating gently to the ground. "He was a vampire," he noted absently. "I mean, I saw that thing the other night. I saw Gwen rip its head off, and I saw it dissolve into jelly. But I really didn't think there could be vampires. What am I supposed to do about that?"

"In all honesty?" Faith asked. "Nothing. You don't really have much of a vamp problem. Wally, here, was probably just passing through. They tend to prefer the really big cities: LA or New York. Or hellmouths. Cleveland is a place you really don't want to visit, trust me on that one. Your burg? Too small, too quiet. We can send a team through a couple times a year, if you want, and if you pick up something, call us. Don't you try getting into it. You have enough of a job to do as it is. Do your job, and let us do ours, okay?"

Jim rubbed his head. "This is your thing," he clarified.

"Yep."

"So what about Gwen?" he tried as a way to distract himself.

"What we were talking about earlier," Xander explained. "They really don't sense her, or the others like her. And we have no records of anyone like her becoming a Slayer, so it's possible that the same thing that makes her different also makes it impossible to become a Slayer the normal way."

"So why now? What's the difference now?" Blair wanted to know.

"The spell our friend did. It blew the whole thing wide open."

"So how about we say that storytime is over, and get back to the real reason for tonight," Faith decided, rubbing her hands together.

"Do we have to go back there," Jim whined. "It's too loud."

"Yes, Jimbo, we do," Faith decreed, putting her arm through his. "We are going back, and you are getting your groove on."

Blair's eyes widened as he contemplated that thought.

* * *

Simon watched as two of his best detectives dragged themselves into the office. Jim, especially, looked decidedly worse for wear. Smiling slightly, he wandered out of his office to greet his detectives. "Was it at least any fun?"

Jim glared at him. "It was loud, and smelly, and they had these strobe lights, and I think I'm getting a migraine just thinking about it," he complained.

"What the hell where you doing?"

"Meeting some contacts. Actually, Sandburg here wanted to observe them in their natural environment, which meant we had to go to a goth club or something."

"Blair?" Simon asked, puzzled.

"Oh, man! It's like we met these people a few days ago, and she's like, uh," he had a quick look around, "well, you know, like Jim here, only not, because she's really, really strong, and, like, super fast, oh man, the way she moved, did you see that?" she asked Jim, rather rhetorically. "And another team were coming to town for r-and-r so they asked if we wanted to see them just being themselves, so of course I wanted to do that, and, let me just say, those girls are wild! I mean, Gwen, who was so laid back, and 'I don't talk to people I don't know' and she was really getting into it, and Faith, well, she had Jim out on the dance floor, and I'm telling you, you really missed something there! And even Dawn, who isn't anything like them, not really, but she was really moving it. And I danced with them, too, and Xander was dancing with us, and that, um, that guy said that he was the White Knight like he was someone really important, but Xander just wants to, like, shrug it off, but the girls really do agree with the, uh, the guy."

Simon, having had enough, held up a hand to stem Blair's flow. "Jim?"

Jim shrugged. "They're contacts, they're probably going to be important, but only for really occasional cases. You probably won't even need to know about them at all. More my, uh, side of things."

"Are they going to take you out clubbing often?"

"God! I hope not," he groaned.

Simon smirked. "Well, okay then. How about you get yourself home, meditate, take something, whatever. I need you in good order, not looking like something the cat dragged in, and then threw up on."

Jim made a face. "Fine, fine. I'm going. What about Blair?"

"I'm sure there's any amount of paperwork he could be doing."

"Oh, man!" Blair complained.

"Hey, you were the one who dragged me there," Jim gloated. "I'll be by later to pick you up. Don't go anywhere," he warned. "I don't want to have to rescue you again. Order in, and have someone check your lunch," he added as he headed back out to his truck.

"Oh, man!" he grumbled as he turned to his desk. "Just can't get away from it, can I? Oh, well," he went on, "could be worse. I could be put with one of those Hunters. Man, those girls play hard!"

Simon frowned as he watched the young anthropologist wander off. He was sure there was much more of a story behind the previous night's outing, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to know it. He shrugged, and returned to his office. Work beckoned.


End file.
